Jiddhu Krishnamurti (1895 - 1986)

Question: What does it mean to see the totality of something? Is it ever possible to perceive the totality of something which is moving?

Can one see the totality of our consciousness completely? Of course one can. One's consciousness is made up of all its content; one's jealousy, nationality, beliefs, experiences and so on; they are the content of this thing called consciousness and the core of that is `me', the self. Right? To see this thing entirely means giving complete attention to it. But one rarely gives complete attention to anything. If one gives complete attention at the very core, the self, one sees the whole.

The questioner also asks, which is interesting: "Is it ever possible to perceive the totality of something which is moving?" Is the self moving? Is the content of your consciousness moving? It is moving within the limits of itself.

What is moving in consciousness - attachment or the fear of what might happen if one is not attached? Consciousness is moving within its own radius, within its own limited area. That one can observe. Is one's consciousness with its content living? Are one's ideas, one's beliefs, living? What is living?

Now, is the remembrance of the experience one has had, living? The remembrance, not the fact; the fact is gone. Yet one calls the movement of remembrance living. The experience which is gone is remembered; and that remembrance is called living. That one can watch; but not that which is gone. So what one calls living is that which has happened and gone. That which has gone is dead; that is why one's mind is so dead. That is the tragedy of one's life.